Whistle Concert By K Sivaprasad

The Andhra Music Academy is organising its 8th Annual Music & Dance Festival from 1st to 7th February, at the Ravindra Bharathi auditorium. The week long festival has some of best music vidhwans and most talented artistes of the current and the past generations performing, notably violinists Dwaram Mangatayaru and Dwaram Satyanarayana Rao, Bharatanatyam dancers Rajeshwari Sainath and Leela Samson, Carnatic vocalists Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Nityasree Mahadaven and Malladi Brothers, and Hindustani vocalists Jayateerth Mevundi and Sangeetha Kulkarni.

Today, the fifth day, whistle wizard Komaravolu Siva Prasad will be performing a whistle concert. He will be accompanied by Peri Srirama on the violin, D S RMurthy on the mridangam and P V Ramana Murthy on the ghatam.

Whistling is a rare and specialised art in the world of music, and Siva Prasad has mastered it to perfection. Hailing from a family of scholars in arts & sciences, he received no formal initiation into the world of music nor any special instruction. It was his own intense interest and enthusiasm for creating music through whistling that led him to where he is.

Prasad had the rare opportunity of receiving guidance from the legendary Carnatic vocalist Dr. M Balamurali Krishna. And his meetings with the immortal shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan inspired and rekindled in him a love and fascination for Hindustani Music. Added to this, the grammar and text of music imparted by the reputed flute vidwan N S Srinivasan enriched his talent and made his a complete artiste.

He has performed in over 10,000 concerts in India and in many parts of the world such as Muscat, Dubai, Baharain, Qatar, Bangkok, Singapore, USSR, USA, Malaysia, Australia and Mauritius. Recipient of several titles, such as Whistle Wizard by the Indian Express in the year 1981, Andhra Nightingale by M G Ramachandran in 1982, Mukha Murali by Ganapati Sachidananda Swami and Swasa Murali by Padmabhushan Dr. C Narayana Reddy in 1997, Siva Prasad was given the Ugadi Puraskar for the year 2002 by the Chief Minister of Andhra
Pradesh.

The Andhra Music Academy was formed in 2001 to particularly sponsor, support and patronise music. In this endeavour, the academy has roped in some very eminent musicians into its advisory panel, like Dr Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna, Dr Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana and Nedunuri Krishna Murthy. The academy organises and conducts various music festivals every year and plans to soon organise these every month.

The entry to all the programs is free. Please contact 94401-93582/98480-59020 for further details.